Remembering Judge Bratton Davis
REMEMBERING JUDGE BRATTON DAVIS -- (Extensions of Remarks - November 16, 2004)
SPEECH OF
HON. JOE WILSON
OF SOUTH CAROLINA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2004
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, South Carolina recently recognized the extraordinary life of the late Judge J. Bratton Davis. Judge Davis will always be remembered as the embodiment of a Southern Gentleman.
Multiple generations of my family knew and respected Judge Davis. My grandparents Bill and Joe Graves were close friends and my parents Wray and Hugh Wilson became admiring friends as fellow students at the University of South Carolina. I will always cherish working with him in 1962 as he managed the successful campaign of Donald S. Russell for Governor of South Carolina. He honored me to be a Youth Manager in the June 1962 primary for the Lowcountry which inspired me to seek a similar career in public service.
I would like to insert in the RECORD the following obituary from the State newspaper: [From the State, Oct. 31, 2004]
JUDGE BRATTON DAVIS
COLUMBIA.-Funeral service for The Honorable J. Bratton Davis will be held Monday at 11 a.m. at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral with burial in Elmwood Memorial Gardens. Serving as pallbearers will be Michael M. Beal, John B. Butler III, George B. Cauthen, Todd R. Ellis, Robert C. Kelly, R. Geoffrey Levy, William Bratton Riley, and W. Keenan Stephenson. Dunbar Funeral Home, Devine Street Chapel, is in charge.
Judge Davis died Friday, October 29, 2004. Born in Hartsville on October 27, 1917, he was the elder son of the late John Bratton Davis and Sarah Causey "Dee" Davis. A 1938 graduate of the University of South Carolina and 1940 graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law, he continued graduate study at Harvard Law School in 1941. He was commissioned as a line officer in the United States Navy serving during WW II principally in the South Pacific Theater of Operations.
From WW II until 1969, Judge Davis practiced law with the firm of Graydon, Davis and Suber. He was admitted to practice in all of the South Carolina courts, all of the federal courts and the High Court of American Samoa.
In 1948, the Junior Chamber of Commerce named Judge Davis "Columbia's Young Man of the Year." He has served as: U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the District of South Carolina (1969-2000); Chief Judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of S.C. (1986-2000); Chairman, State of South Carolina Development Board; Columbia Board of Directors of the South Carolina National Bank; Board of Directors of Security Federal Savings and Loan Association; President of the Columbia Museum of Art; Vestryman, Trinity Cathedral; member of the Judicial Conference of the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit; member of the Security and Facilities Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States; member of the Board of Directors of the University of South Carolina Educational Foundation; member of the Board of Directors of the University of South Carolina Law School Partnership Board; member of the Board of Directors of the Virginia and Donald S. Russell Symposium Committee; member of the Board of Governors of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges; President of the Columbia Kiwanis Club; member of the Board of Directors of the Columbia Chapter of the American Red Cross; member of the Board of Directors of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis; Chairman of the Donald Russell Gubernatorial Inauguration Committee; member of the Board of Directors of the Byrnes Foundation; and member of the Board of Directors of the James F. Bynes Centennial Committee.
In 2000, Judge Davis was awarded the Order of the Palmetto, the highest honor conferred by the State of South Carolina.
The J. Bratton Davis U.S. Bankruptcy Courthouse was so named in his honor upon his retirement from the bench in 2000.
He held memberships in: Forest Lake Club; Palmetto Club; Centurion Society; South Caroliniana Society; Kappa Alpha Order; Omicron Delta Phi; The Columbia Ball; and South Carolina Historical Society.
Judge Davis is survived by his wife, Margaret Smyth McKissick Davis; sons, Sherwood McKissick Cleveland and his wife, Kathleen of Camden, and William Choice Cleveland and his wife, Anne of Charleston; daughter, Jean Davis Bruton and her husband, John C. Bruton, Jr. of Columbia; brother, John Thorne Davis of Charleston; and grandchildren, Sherwood McKissick Cleveland Jr., Samuel Henry Edmunds Cleveland, John Connor Cleveland, Braden Cleveland Bergan, Margaret Cleveland Pitts, William Choice Cleveland IV, Margaret McKissick Bruton and John Calvin Bruton III.